County cleans-up in top community litter effort

May 21 2009 by Marjorie Kerr, West Lothian Courier

TIDY locals have netted West Lothian Council a top award.

Keep Scotland Beautiful has awarded its Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of the tremendous success of West Lothian Council’s efforts, and those of local communities.

Over 6900 people from West Lothian participated in clean up events in April – more than double the number from last year and also a greater number of people than from any other local authority ina ll of Scotland.

During April, volunteers from 73 groups from across West Lothian participated in National Spring Clean to give the county a major facelift.

These volunteers spent their time cleaning up local areas ranging from public green spaces, to school grounds, woodlands and riversides.

West Lothian Council encouraged many groups to get involved in the campaign and provided equipment, offered assistance to remove and dispose of rubbish collected and provided staff support and publicity.

John Summers OBE, chief executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful was high in his praise for the effort and said: “The National Spring Clean Award for Outstanding Achievement has been presented to West Lothian Council for having the highest number of participants something they have now achieved two years in a row.

“The sheer number of people who volunteered to really make a difference to their own area is staggering.

“We are extremely grateful to West Lothian Council for geeing up enthusiasm in the event, and to all the volunteers for taking part.”

West Lothian Council’s Executive councillor for the environment, Robert De Bold, said he was pleased the authority has scooped the award.

He said: “It’s a superb achievement for the whole of West Lothian to win an award for the second year in a row.

“The fact that even more local people, schools and community groups came out to make a real difference to their environment this year shows their commitment to making a West Lothian a better place for us all.

“We are now looking forward to encouraging even more people to take part next year, to make sure we continue to work to improve our environment.

“A huge vote of thanks must also go to the council’s environmental wardens and Neighbourhood Environment and Lands Services teams, whose invaluable support made these clean ups possible.”